Making Music: Group lessons help engage students as they learn to play instruments.

Will and Sarah Mason are dreamers, but they are also doers who are willing to actively pursue their dreams in order to make a difference in the lives of future Birmingham musicians.

The couple founded Mason Music, a company that offers music lessons to any one who wants to take them. It started with Sarah driving, quite literally, all around the greater Birmingham area to give private lessons to students. Her focus is in both vocals and piano, so when students wanted to learn guitar, she referred them to her husband Will, who also visited students in their homes to teach lessons.

"Driving to people's houses was extremely convenient for our clients,” Will says. “It’s what really helped us to be successful in the early stages.”

Through word-of-mouth Mason Music began to spread quickly. Eventually, Will and Sarah’s schedules were full, and they couldn’t take on any new business.

“It grew so much, so quickly; we had to start a wait list,” Will says. “We didn’t feel good about that, which then caused us to hire more teachers.”

On April 1, Mason Music became a brick-and-mortar business,opening shop on Cahaba Heights Road. There, Will and Sarah have multiple classrooms that are extremely conducive to the group lessons they believe so much in.

“Over five years, kids who stay in one-on-one lessons will lose interest,” Will says. “It doesn’t matter how good the teacher may be.”

“Think of it as a basketball player who only practices by himself in his driveway,” Sarah says. “How are they going to reach the next level without the support and challenges a team brings?”

Enter group lessons. Mason Music offers plenty of options for students who want to get plugged in with a community of musicians. They offer vocal workshops focused on Taylor Swift, Adele and more. They also offer group studies of famous bands, such as Led Zeppelin.

Sarah emphasizes that in the Birmingham area there really isn’t an outlet for young people to get plugged into the world of music.

“For sports, you have an endless amount of athletic teams,” Sarah says. “That’s not the case for music. Outside of theater and maybe marching band, there isn’t an outlet for young musicians. We want to provide them a ‘cool’ option that they may not have elsewhere.”

That seems to be catching on. In the summer, generally the least busy time for lessons, they had approximately 60 new students.

“We have no idea how we are going to fit in our building this fall,” Sarah says. “But honestly, that’s a pretty good problem to have."

It’s clear that the focus at Mason Music will always be on the students. The founders want students to have a place that they can come to and be comfortable. The whole goal is for them to learn more about their passion for music.

“Mason Music isn’t a super common idea,” Will says. “A lot of places are retail focused, and then offer music lessons in the back of their store. We are solely lesson driven. We carry just enough retail to service our clients out of convenience for them, but we will never become retail focused.”

Community and relationships are the two words that both Will and Sarah seem to repeat more than anything when talking about Mason Music. And those two words seem to be bringing them continued success.

“I want to build relationships with these students,” Sarah says. “I want them to love being here, and love being a part of music culture. We want to build a young community of musicians who are confident in what they do. It’s amazing to see the students who start off incredibly timid, but then are now on stage just completely rocking it out. That’s what we want for our students.”

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